Eternal Ice In The Beginning
by AwkwardTurtlesJC
Summary: Vampire, Devin Leynold meets the devil himself, Adrian Buchanan. They form an unlikely alliance with one another. Out of love or hate? No one really knows. Maybe not even themselves. May the odds be forever in their favor.


8

It was never enough. Nothing she did was enough for her own cruel mind. It didn't matter how many lives she took, or wrecked she was always thirsty. Night after night, throat after throat, nothing sated her. Nothing quenched that dry rusty feeling in the back of her throat. So she drank more. This night she was almost drunk with blood. Bar hopping like a human but drinking like a monster. She slinked her way in and out of bar stools. The last bar she was attending was close to closing. 'I should go home anyway. Before sunrise.' She quickly thought to herself. On her way out she could smell him. His mind clouded though she knew not why. She turned attention to the dark headed fellow on the opposite side of the bar. 'Alone?' She raised a brow and straightened her smirk. Each breath of his scent was maddening. She could almost feel the pulse as though it were beneath her own skin. Devin kept her eyes on him as she got closer. When she was only inches from his seat she offered a sinister smile, "Do you want some company?" Her tone light, not flirty.

The truth was, that even though she usually killed most of the humans she came in contact with, she was lonely. Desperately lonely. Sometimes she would strike up conversation with random strangers and sometimes even a vampire or two. The reality of her situation was, few of her kind wanted anything to do with her. She was cast out from their covens like a some kind of criminal. 'A criminal among the damned?' She laughed at the thought. But it was true nonetheless. They treated her that way. She didn't have the control they did. Her maker left her a very long time ago. No rules or regulations. No way of knowing how she was suppose to be in the vampire community. So she wandered, city to city, in hopes of finding someone anyone who could help her settle her mind.

Though her escapades did little to ease her troubled mind, they made it easier to deal with her own madness. Each night when she went home she'd relive the night's adventures and she always felt guilty the next day. That guilt, though not powerful enough to keep her from doing it, was enough to make her head throb. It consumed her and overwhelmed her life at times. She stayed away from humans once. Long enough to realize she wasn't capable of learning the control on her own. No other maker was willing to help her and without it, she remained immune to control. So in the mean time she was stuck making small talk with humans who may or may not give a damn about her existence. Sometimes she wondered why she even bothered.

Adrian had gotten off work shortly before he had arrived at the bar. He had taken a seat in a booth alone. He loosened his tie that he had worn before taking a drink of vodka he had ordered. Adrian heard a female voice in ear-shot range. Craning his head, he saw a young-looking woman gazing back at him. "That depends who's asking," he replied with his usual British accent. The dark-haired man flashed his famous thousand dollar pure white dental worked half smile. Almost everyone in the world knew who he was because of his almost globally famous multi-billion dollar business. Anyone who didn't, were most likely counted as irrelevant nobodies. He never had just one thing on his mind so he was hard to read. Although, his dark eyes were always cool, calm, and collected. Except when it came to needing a heartless bastard of a killer, he was the guy you called.

No one knew the troubles he had been through in his past life. Since he was now infected with this disease that caused him to suffer with mental impairment, he would have random moments of insanity and would actually be considered a serial killer in the modern age. Mr. Buchanan had hidden all the bodies he killed well. Devin nodded, "Well played. I don't really have conversation going well with the old gents at the bar. So I thought I'd try for one here." She shrugged and posted herself up on the edge of the booth, still standing. She arched her brow high at his accent and when he slid her that smile she returned the favor with an equally sly one. "I'm Devin." She offered. She waved casually at the bartender who promptly brought her a scotch on the rocks. "Thanks." She nodded politely. She offered her glass up in a toasting manner and smiled before downing the drink.

"Bar closes in a few. You got plans?" she put some of the ice in her mouth and kept her eyes steady on the man in front of her. She had no intention of even attempting to feed from him. She knew anymore blood would send her over the edge. A place she had visited before and had no intentions of turning back to. So instead she'd strike conversation and worst case scenario she would be a little less lonely for a brief moment. She sat down on the edge of the booth keeping her distance and not removing her eyes from his as she set her glass down. "I'm Adrian. Adrian Buchanan," he stated promptly. "As a matter of fact, I don't have any plans," he answered to her question as he took another drink of his vodka. The wheels in his mind turned trying to figure out the strange woman who had struck up a conversation with him.

"Why the curiosity?" he asked with a conniving smile as he held his hand around his vodka glass on the table. His eyes dead steady on her, analyzing her from physical to psychological features. Adrian was the best at getting into people's minds. He always thought of it as an advantage to himself. "I'm tired of being alone." She offered an embarrassed grin. "I don't have any family here or really friends to speak of. But I still somehow manage to come out into the city scene periodically to attempt to make a friend." She shrugged holding her glass up so the bartender could see she wanted another. Once the glass was in her hand she took a smaller sip this time and turned to him, "And, as long as I'm being honest, the fact that you didn't have someone with you was part of my motivation for coming over in the first place. Behind the steady eyes, I can tell there is more underneath." She licked her lips and rubbed them together before taking another swig from her glass. "But I don't make early judgments on devilishly handsome billionaire men." She added quickly and finished her drink pushing the glass to the middle of the table in front of them.

Adrian finished his vodka then caught the glass at mid-slide between his thumb and ring finger, "You were right about 2 things, there may be something more underneath and I'm a billionaire." He now stood up himself, leaving a $50 tip on the table. "But, I'm not devilishly handsome," he said with his half smile followed by a wink of the eye. Adrian turned his body and headed himself out of the bar and into the moonlit parking lot. Devin nodded and smirked a sideways smirk, "Okay little worm...I'll bite." she threw her own tip down and followed his lead outside. She pulled a cigarette out of her back pocket and lit it taking a long drag, "I'm not so sure about the devil part. Everything with a pretty face has a pretty dark past to go along with it." She winked back at him mimicking what she had seen him do. With one arm tucked under the other she put the cigarette back to her lip and smiled, "Besides, it was a compliment." She added coyly averting her eyes and looking down at her feet.

A small buzzing sound came from his pocket. He pulled out his phone and answered to whoever was calling. Adrian stepped away for a few moments then coming back seconds later, the phone back in his pocket. Straightening his tie back to the formal position, "If you don't mind I have some…_business _to tend to." Adrian walked toward his car with a serious look on his face. Once he got in and started the engine he was gone. He drove down the road, only to end up at a small wooden cabin few miles out of the city. Hopping out and heading toward the front steps, a man stepped out. He looked to be almost the same age as Adrian or maybe a little older. "What brings _you _here Buchanan?" the man's voice was sharp. Adrian just smiled as he reached his hand in his pocket, gripping his hand around something. "Your death," Adrian said with a crooked smile before pulling out a knife and jabbing it into the body of the man only an inch from his heart. The man let out a screaming sound. Adrian just chuckled as he twisted the knife, ripping the other man's beating chambers, killing him instantly. He jerked the knife out and cleaned the blood off with the now-dead man's shirt. Adrian placed the dead man in a position that made it look like it was by accident.

"Right," she added softly watching him take leave of her. "You really don't have it anymore Dev." She told herself shaking her head and flicking out her cigarette before heading in the direction of home. It wasn't like she had much luck with immortals, and now she just felt pathetic. He hadn't even budged at her presence. There had been a time when she'd been the object of every one's affection, and now in her prime years as a vampire she had little psychical or emotional connection to show for it. Once she was home she changed clothes and slid into her bed. There wasn't much to say about it comfortability, besides that it had none. She sighed rolling on her side and looking up at her window. There were moments, very human moments, where she hated her life. Lows that she didn't understand why she could even have. Times where nothing seemed to be worth it and nothing she did made her happy. The most pathetic part was perhaps, that her entire emotional instability existed because immortals cast her out and humans didn't care. "What has it come to?" she asked aloud, the words vibrating off her walls and slamming into her mind like a guilty acknowledgement.

Adrian looked down at the dead man and gave another chuckle. "You know what, I don't think I'm done with you," he said. Walking to his car, he grabbed a can of gasoline from his trunk and poured it over the body and home. He tossed the can to the side as walked off the porch then took a cheap lighter and lit it up. He tossed the lit lighter on the gasoline and watched the man and house burn together. It wasn't long before the sun was back down again and Devin rose out of bed. She took a quick shower and pulled on her usual jeans and band t shirt. She jerked her arms into the leather sleeves of her jacket and pushed her feet into her leather boots. She followed the same streets with the same silence as she made her way to her normal bar. The bar tender greeted her with a smile and already had her drink ready. She sat down, and for whatever reason scanned the place for the man she had seen the night before. Devin didn't know it annoyed her the way he left but the mystery was intriguing. She took several sips of her drink before she was on the next one. "Long night ahead of us Walter," she smiled at the bartender who only smiled back.

Two men walked into the bar. Their faces were hidden by the shadows of their hats. They took a seat in a booth in the far back corner of the bar. The men started discussing something of recent events in hushed tone. There was a manila folder file laid down on the top of the table between the men. The first man opened the folder to an article clipping that talked about a house fire and the death of former executive president of a technology law firm that sat in Times Square. The second man was a short fellow and spoke in an almost audible tone, "Somehow, I think this was no _accident._"

"Well, then who would have done something like this?"

"There are only 3 likely suspects," the smaller man stated as he pulled out 3 different people's photos.

"Who's that?" asked the taller looking man, pointing to one of the photos.

"Oh, that's Adrian Buchanan, the C.E.O. of Buchanan Enterprise."

The tall man made a humming sound before speaking, "I guess it really depends on who would have the most to _gain _from his death." The rest of their conversation turned into inaudible sounds and hand motions. When Devin heard her mystery man's name she turned her head slightly to hear. Though she couldn't understand everything they were saying, her hearing was heightened and she heard a few things about Adrian being one of their suspects. She furrowed her brows trying to consider that the interesting man from the night before was a murderer. She shrugged the thought away, 'It'll just be another thing we have in common.' She took another drink back and smiled closing her tab. "Early night Dev?" She nodded politely, "Hopefully I'll find something else to get into." She winked throwing down a tip and heading outside.

After a few moments of thoughts going in and out of her head she ran her hand over her mouth and she sighed. She had no idea how to find this man. She couldn't show up at his office during the day the sunlight would kill her. Phone book? 'Too obvious.' She thought. And even though she knew she wanted to warn him she was confused as to why. She shoved her hands in her pocket and started down the sidewalk. What was going on with this guy? He had it all it seemed, so why was he the suspect of a major crime like murder? A fire? He obviously didn't want to get caught, so how had his name came up.

She sighed as she continued down the sidewalk the night air moved her hair in and out of her face. 'What have you gotten yourself into?' She was surprised when she realized she hadn't fed all night. She had been so consumed with thoughts of this Adrian Buchanan that she hadn't had time to worry about finding a throat to sink her teeth into. 'Interesting.' She thought again with a small laugh. Who would have thought that tall dark and handsome meant cold cruel and a murderer? And worse than that...who would have thought that the idea thrilled her? Adrian spent his entire night at his mansion that sat on the nearby outskirts of town. He been making phone calls almost all afternoon then worked on his piles of paperwork he had to fill out. A little tired he ran his fingers through his hair reflexively, thinking. Thinking about the woman from nights before. Devin was wrapped in thoughts. Had her skin not already been ice her thoughts would have been the only thing keeping her warm. The night was nearly over and she found herself home again. "What have you gotten into beautiful Adrian?" She spoke aloud before attempting to sleep. Her dreams turned into nightmares and she felt her body twist and bend as she dreamt. She was in a room full of dead bodies. Faces off the faceless that she had killed. In the middle of the room was Adrian. His face held his perfect smile and she watched as he cleaned a knife looking at her. Her confusion was erased and suddenly she felt warm from the thought that he was a killer. She jerked herself up from the dream and ran her fingers through her hair. "Damn it." She whispered as she moved her exhausted body to the shower.

Adrian walked himself to his master bedroom. He looked himself in an old mirror that hung from the huge white walls of the room. His psychotic smile peaked around and spread across his face, "1 down, 2 to go," he said lightly to himself with his crooked smile. "Soon, this place will belong to me," he added at a half-whisper. Adrian chuckled before stepping out onto his balcony that overlooked New York City in the distance. Feeling the cool night air blow on his perfect, dark, morbid face. Devin sighed at her reflection in the mirror. She took time getting dressed only pulling her short hair up after she tugged a green hoodie over her head. She walked the few miles to the bar. Pulling the hood off her still damp hair she took her seat at the bar. Walter slid her the familiar drink and she eyed the place. No sight of cops from before and definitely not sight of Adrian. "Walter?" She asked rather loudly to get his attention. He threw his towel over his shoulder and walked to her leaning over the bar, "What's up kid?" She laughed at the notion. He had no idea how old she was and it was sweet that he was so kind to her.

"Does Mr. Buchanan frequent here?" Walter raised a brow and took several minutes to answer. "I can't really say Dev." He shrugged the question off and went back to his bar tending. She furrowed her brows and sighed swirling her drink in her glass and taking a long sip. She couldn't understand the secrecy and was getting more and more frustrated that every time she stopped thinking about it, she came up with more questions then she had before. After a deep sigh she finished her drink and tried to slowly come up with a solution to cure her curiosity. "Hmm, the night is still young," Adrian thought. He went downstairs and out to his car and took a drive down to the brightly lit city. The cold, heartless man wounded up outside the familiar bar from a few nights ago. He smirked to himself.

A younger looking male who had been sitting at the bar, overheard the conversation. He turned to Devin then spoke, "Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear that you were wondering about a Mr. Buchanan? If I were you I'd drop all thoughts of him." The man's eyes went to a scared expression. The bar fell silent as a man walked in; a dark hat shadowed the features of his face. "Why is everyone so quiet?" the stranger said. He removed his hat with one quick movement. It was Mr. Buchanan with a sadistic smile spread wide from ear to ear. Devin smirked and raised a brow slightly when she noticed the fear in the man's eyes. She couldn't help but let out a low laugh as she turned back around and took another drink from a suddenly not so happy Walter. The stranger left in quite a hurry. And she shook her head, "Always this much of a hit Mr. Buchanan?" She teased lightly as she took another long sip from her drink. She watched as several people still stared at him. She wanted to ask him questions about the night before and the conversation she overheard. But she didn't right away. She took in the idea of what to say when the time presented itself and just sipped her drink attempting to be patient.

"I guess its part of being a famous business man," he chuckled to himself. "YOU KILLED MY BROTHER! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A MONSTER!" a man yelled as he suddenly rose from the corner of the bar and walked toward Buchanan. "Now, now, I don't believe you have any significant evidence that I did such a horrid unbelievable thing to a human being. And if you would be so kind as to please back away before I end you," Adrian stated, his facial expressions turning to dead serious. Devin shifted her eyes to the accuser and leaned against the bar. She didn't know what to make of this. "Did you want to go somewhere else?" She offered sliding Walter the money for her drinks. His own annoyed facial expression turning to a very concerned one. She wasn't going to wait for his answer. Dev pulled sleeves down over her hands a little and headed outside. The tension in the bar was overwhelming and the way Walter looked between the two of them, herself and Adrian, was discerning. So she stood propped against the wall waiting for the alleged murderer to walk outside. The man lunged after him but, Adrian gripped him by the neck firmly, barely leaving him room to breathe. "I suggest you rethink this all and go back and sit in your little pitiful corner or I'll crushed you in the Adams apple ugly son-of-a-bitch." Adrian spat coldly. Adrian let him go and watched the man run back to his seat in utter terror. He smirked then walked himself over to the bar and grabbed an almost full bottle of vodka that sat on the bar line. "It was great seeing you all!" Adrian said sarcastically as he walked out of the bar with the bottle in his hand. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a cigarette, placed it between his murderous lips then lit. Occasionally blowing out small uniform puffs of gray smoke.

Devin faced him as he stood there cigarette in his lips and bottle in hand, "So are you gonna run off again and leave me standing here like a fool?" She asked slightly glaring and tempted to pull out her own cigarette before folding her arms and taking a deep breath. She was feeling famished. She needed to feed. She hadn't done so in almost two days. But she had to learn more about him. She hated feeling that way but after the last few days her head was spinning. "Well, I was thinking about picking up a prostitute on my way home to help me down this vodka, but then I'd be too tempted to kill her afterwards," he said sarcastically, looking back at her with his cold, soulless eyes. Placing his cigarette back between his index and middle fingers as he opened the vodka bottle. He took a long drink as if not even sorry. "It's incredibly sadistic to even find you a little attractive. If it's any consolation, I have to feed tonight, as instead of being a billion dollar murderer, I'm a vampire." She shrugged softly deciding to finally pull out her own cigarette. "I have my own murders to commit. So if you do a prostitute, make sure you hide the body." She winked coyly and turned and started heading in the opposite direction, "But if you need help let me know." She called over her shoulder. He smirked to himself. "I can't let you know if I don't have your number, besides I thought I was quite attractive!" he called back to her. Adrian drank some more before heading back to his car. He threw his finished cigarette on the ground then got inside. As he sat there for a moment, he started to think about what she had told him. He only smirked to himself as he thought. Adrian had to admit, he did find her rather attractive himself. "Vampire huh?" he thought to himself as he ignited the engine.

Devin laughed. When she heard him head to his car she found herself walking back over. She tugged a piece of paper out of her bag and jotted her cell phone number down. She tapped lightly on the window and shoved her card down in his window and smirked blowing him a kiss and turning away again. She needed to find food before it wrecked any more of her judgment. She liked the way he was. It was confusing and overwhelming but she liked it. It was the best time she had had in a long time which made her feel even more sadistic. Adrian examined the piece of paper she slipped through his window then stuffed it into his pocket. An hour passed by and he finally arrived home with some prostitute he found on a street corner. He had gotten her drunk from all the vodka. Adrian, himself, only had a small buzz from the intake. The girl laid out on his bed as if she was ready to get it in with him. He only laughed and said, "I think I would like you better if you were covered in blood." She looked at him confused but then shrugged. Adrian grabbed her by her hair, dragged her downstairs and to his backyard where he would soon enough cut her throat. The girl's warm red blood oozed down his bare hand. His insane smile showed again. Tossing her dead body into a black body bag that he soon dragged all the way down to a small piranha infested lake that laid a mile outside his home. He ran his fingers through his hair then rolled the body slowly into the deep waters.

Devin hadn't been walking long when she stumbled across a potential meal. "Hey pretty..." the drunk guy said to her. He was young, probably no older then early twenties. She raised a brow and turned to look at him as he closed the distance between them, "Hey handsome." She smirked. He put his lips to hers and she embraced the idea as she felt his heart race through their connected lips. He pulled her hand up and smiled, "Why don't you come inside..." He was obviously surprised he hadn't had to force her but she kept her calm and smiled, "Sure thing."

She followed him inside and he led her to the drab of a room he called the living room. She pushed him down on the couch and smiled, "No one else home?" He shook his head letting his eyes wander over her body. She tugged her hood down and pulled the sweater off tossing it on the couch next to him. Devin smirked running her finger down the side of his face, "Just stay still sugar, this won't take long..." She smirked her fangs extending the drunken expression suddenly turning concerned. She licked her lips and jerked his head to the side in a quick motion digging her teeth into the side of his neck. He tried to push her off but naturally failed miserably.

She tore into him in rough swift motions tearing the skin apart and making her rage with blood lust. He started to scream so she dug in more and snarled slightly sucking more of his warm blood into her mouth. It was sweet and thick, its contents laced with alcohol. She drained him to the point of death and pulled back gasping as if she needed to take a breath. She smiled licking her lips and putting her sweater back on walking to the door. "Call me." She giggled slamming the door and still licking her teeth and lips. She sighed in contentment and smiled. "It's been a good night Dev." She said to herself.

Standing at the edge of the water as he watched the body float away and soon be decapitated and devoured by hungry piranhas and other man-eating creatures that roamed in the water. The dead girl's blood spread across the top of the water as her body was dragged underwater. "Love is blindness doll," he murmured with a smirk. He headed back to his enormous mansion, clearly satisfied with his bloody work. Devin spent the rest of night slightly high from the blood and alcohol level. She took several long strides to her couch and tugged roughly at her clothing until she was just in her underwear. She jerked the blanket on the back of the couch down and covered herself. She felt herself still wound up partly wishing she hadn't walked away from Adrian. It was only a matter of time before he would either call or she'd move on. She was hoping for the former but she'd been through worse in the last two hundred years, one more dateless night wouldn't kill her. She found herself drifting and smiled, it really had been a good night for her. Who knew what tomorrow would hold, she thought to herself.

Adrian made it home and took a long hot shower; cleaning off all the blood from the dead body. Once he finished he got himself ready for bed. He laid the piece of paper that he had been handed earlier and held it under his cell phone on his night stand. Laying there, he looked up at the ceiling thinking about everything that happened. Images coming and going in his mind as he remembered each one in chronological order. Adrian soon drifted off to sleep, waiting to maybe see the vampire woman once again tomorrow. Dev was awoken with a creak on her doorstep. The sun was setting so she was safe to stand and investigate. She heard the hushed sound of someone messing with her door handle. It was interesting thought to think she was being robbed. They were going to be surprised for sure. When the person pushed her door open she waited several long minutes before jerking them inside. The weapon they were going to use clattered to the floor and she forced them into the air and pinned them by the throat, "Interesting turn of events wouldn't you say?" She turned her head slightly as the man sized her up. She was still only in her underwear which made her laugh. "You can't do this..."

She laughed and shrugged, "Breaking and entering is against the law. Really it's self defense." The man struggled but she tightened her grip. His voice was hoarse from the pressure but he tried to speak anyway, "He's a murderer." She raised a brow and used her free hand to turn the light on. She glowered at him and sighed. It was the man from the bar. He must have followed her after her and Adrian left the bar. "I saw you...kill...drunk." But she shook her head she let him stand on his own and bashed his head against the wall knocking him unconscience. When he fell to the ground she sighed. "Great..." She was normally so careful.

Pushing the body up she sighed heading into her closet to get ready for the night. She was feeling antsy already and needed to feed again. She didn't want to drink this guy. He was just in the bar so he needed to be dropped back off somewhere. Otherwise people would assume Adrian was to blame, and she didn't want that. She put him in her car and drove a few miles into the city dropping him off at the hospital. Once she was free of his burden she headed in town in hopes of seeing the Mr. Buchanan.


End file.
